The most demanded profession of the XXI century

Have you ever thought about what Data Scientist is? Who is responsible for this in the companies? What do these people do?

And why is Data Scientist the most demanded profession of the 21st century, according to Harvard Business Review?

February 23, AlmaU became a platform for the largest meeting of like-minded people in Kazakhstan - specialists who tend to master the world through information and digits, as part of the first large DS / ML meetup, aimed at representatives working with Big Data.

The best experts in the field of Big Data shared their experience and expertise, answered questions about the data industry, and talked about what is needed to build a successful career in this industry.

The main part of the program was the presentation of five leading experts in the field of Data Science and Machine Learning of Kazakhstan:

Katerina Rehert, Data Scientist at Kolesa Group, previously worked at Microsoft, USA, who studied data analysis at the University of Washington.

Prof. Dr. Adnan Yazici, Ph.D. in Computer Science at Nazarbayev University, received a doctorate at Tulane University, USA

Egorov Ilya, Chief Data Officer in Technodom

Anuar Akishev, Managing Director, DAR Tech

Mikhail Lipkovich, Lead Engineer of Big Data at TRA Robotics, was previously the lead analyst at EPAM Systems, Russia.

The event was hosted by Rashid Dyusembayev, Managing Director of Centras Capital.

Data is new oil!

The aphorism, which is mentioned in almost every article about big data, which is a bit of a “tired refrain”, is nevertheless extremely relevant and has become a kind of epigraph, emphasizing the key idea of all the speakers’ speeches.

This perception of the data directs the general public’s view of the data in the right direction. Like any raw material, data must be able to process. According to statistics, only 5% of all data in the world is processed. This fact increases the value of the Data Scientist profession, stimulates interest and demand for this function and specialists around the world, and also translates the skill of data processing and analysis into the category of “hard skills”.

In one of its articles, The Economist magazine defines data as a key factor for growth and change in the 21st century, the same as oil in the 20th century. This increases the demand of companies for professionals who can work with data. It also goes without saying that Data Science and Machine Learning contribute to increasing a company revenue.

Note: today, experts are moving away from Excel, preferring Power BI, a powerful tool for business intelligence. Developing skills and being open to communication is one of the key tips for DS / ML specialists, since communication and communication skills contribute to understanding and better structuring the information received.

At the end of the presentations of all the speakers, a plenary session was held, in which both experts and guests took part.

The organizers of the first large-scale DS / ML Meetup were Data Science Academy Kazakhstan, consulting and professional courses on DS / ML in Kazakhstan, Almaty Management University and the Scientific and Educational Foundation named after Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov with the program of guest lectures "Yessenov’s reading". The general sponsor of the meeting is Centras Capital.